The American College Test (ACT) results were published by test administrators this past week and area students performed very well on the test this past school year 2008-2009. This is an important test in our area of the country because the ACT, while a voluntary college entrance exam, is often used by major colleges in the South to determine admission and scholarship distribution.
This particular college entrance exam is comprised of four curriculum-based tests assessing skills in English, mathematics, reading and science and the scores range from 1 to 36, 36 being a perfect score.
The number of students taking the test nationally rose to a record of 1.48 million students as some states have moved to make the test mandatory. Alabama while still a voluntary state nonetheless had 76 percent of students take the test making it one of the highest percentages in the nation.
Nevertheless the rest of the statewide rankings were not as positive, as Alabama averaged 20.3 almost a full point below the national average of 21.1 with Massachusetts scoring the highest with 24.0 and Mississippi scoring the lowest with 19.0.
While individual high school results have not yet been made public, the Huntsville Times did publish the results for local school districts. The Huntsville City School District averaged 21.9 above the national average and Madison City Schools (i.e. Bob Jones High School) scored 23.8 which is among some of the best schools in the nation. Madison County Schools also did better than the rest of the state with an average score matching the national average of 21.1.
